Improvisation as ‘a force for growth and evolution’

Can improvisation in electronic music create new pathways for learning? Eldad Tsabary, assistant professor in Concordia’s Department of Music, thinks so.

He’ll be presenting his research on the topic in a keynote address at the third annual International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Bali this month.

Tsabary uses his work in electroacoustic studies and as director of the Concordia Laptop Orchestra (CLOrk) — where computers are used as live musical instruments — to map how improvisation helps us learn and share.

Under Tsabary's leadership, CLOrk has performed physically and telematically with symphonic, jazz, chamber and laptop orchestras worldwide, and collaborated with dancers and video artists, most often in improvisational contexts.

“How we obtain knowledge is complex,” explains Tsabary. “With the laptop orchestra, I’ve been studying improvisation as a force for growth and evolution.”
 

Unlike traditional study, Tsabary uses “educational action research,” where the instructor and students are collaborating stakeholders in the learning and creative processes. In this environment, all participants are involved in modifying the studied approach in response to emerging facts and knowledge. He says that action research doesn’t give conclusions per se, but offers new ways of understanding.